Kampala — MEMBERS of the East African Community are set to sign an agreement that will set up an organisation to manage Lake Victoria.

The decision to sign a Water Release and Abstraction Policy was agreed on last week in Zanzibar, where member states agreed to establish "an independent and transparent mechanism" for monitoring the status of the lake.

Water and environment, minister Maria Mutagamba said: "The agreement will enable us to know how much water we are using and, therefore, how best utilise the lake."

She said a study was commissioned two years ago to find out the lake's bstractions.

"We hired a consultant who has been given up to the end of this year to report the findings to the Lake Victoria Basin Commission."

She said although the new Agreed Curve Limit partitioning the lake between Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania had not yet been ratified, developments on the lake would go on until the signing of the covenant.

"Tanzania had originally wanted to put a caveat on development projects, but the proposal was rejected by other members," she said.

Earlier this month, Egypt had also called for a pact in which it would have a say on any developments undertaken by Uganda that would affect the flow of River Nile, on which it heavily depends.